The classic European ‘80s band, Scotland's own Big Country blasted through international waters with their bagpipe-sounding guitars and original new wave style. The innovative quartet led America into alternative pop/rock bliss with smash singles like "Look Away" and "In a Big Country," and their legacy will go down in history books as one of Scotland's best mainstream bands of the era.

The product of Dunfermline, Scotland, Big Country started as the brainchild of frontman Stuart Adamson, who struck up the band after severing ties with his previous punk band the Skids. Recruiting guitarist and childhood friend Bruce Watson, Clive Parker and brothers Pete and Alan Wishart (who were quickly replaced by Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki) Big Country started jamming in 1981, releasing the band's debut single "Harvest Home" in 1982 while immediately taking to the road with a string of performances on Jam's farewell tour. The 1982 release "Fields of Fire" was Big Country's first Top Ten hit on the U.K. charts, and the group's success thereafter skyrocketed.

Big Country released their debut album The Crossing in 1983, going gold and crossing into American territory with the Top 20 pop hit "In a Big Country." The follow-up to the 1983 success was 1984's Steeltown, which immediately hit the top of the Billboard charts while the quartet continued releasing hit after hit album. Through constant changes in the band's lineup, Big Country kept their signature new wave sound consistent, eventually joining up with the Compulsion label for 1990s hits like ‘93's The Buffalo Skinners. In the mid-‘90s, frontman Adamson started retreating from the band, moving to Nashville in 1997 and consequently pushing Big Country to an extended hiatus. Alcohol problems led Adamson to stray from the band even more, and in 2001 he was found dead in a hotel room in Hawaii after being reported missing from his home in Nashville for weeks.